By Bill Koch
The Cincinnati Enquirer

About a half-hour before practice was to begin on Monday, University of Cincinnati guard Jamaal Lucas walked across the Shoemaker Center floor and asked the question that all the players were asking.

"Hey, Steve," he yelled to Steve Bybee, the head student manager. "Can we go back in now?"

The answer was yes. After Sunday's victory over Oklahoma State, the Bearcats, who had been ejected from their locker room after losing to Marquette two games ago, were allowed back in.

But they still can't practice in their UC gear.

"You can't give people things they don't earn," said UC coach Bob Huggins. "It's an effort deal. They've got to play the way everybody before them has played."

Said forward Leonard Stokes: "It's nice to be back in there. Now we've got to do what we have to do to stay in there."

MOVING UP: Huggins walked onto the practice floor proudly pointing to the latest RPI report that showed UC had jumped to 18th. The Bearcats' schedule was ranked fifth.

The Bearcats are off until Saturday, when they travel to Charlotte.

BENGAL VISITOR: Bengals linebacker Brian Simmons stopped by practice with Channel 5's Solomon Wilcots. Simmons is exploring a job in television after his football career is finished.

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E-mail bkoch@enquirer.com